Thicker Than Mud
by MistressWinowyll
Summary: His tears had stopped momentarily, and as his heart relaxed in the quiet hotel room, he was painfully alone. Parallel of my story Get What You Wanted but written by Last of the Ancients. Rated M for lemon,violence,etc
1. Ch 1 In a room alone

**AN: Greetings, everyone. I am your Mistress. Allow me to introduce another follower to my story Get What You Wanted to be perceived by another talented author who has taken up the mantle to parallel my story. As I am a generous Mistress, I welcome all to express their own versions of a tale I am telling. Without further delay, here is a word from the author.**

_Hello, I'm the last of the Ancients, and I hope that in the following accounts of a hopelessly hurt individual, my fellow readers or writers can learn lessons, some as simple as forgiveness, some as complex as moving on. I will not bore your easily satisfied minds though; in the following tale, woven from the fabric of a mistress, derived from the blood of a lord, I surmise that you shall be astounded._

* * *

Tsukune had never been a hard to please man. He loved his friends, adored his wife, and was generally a kind, caring individual. In the few moments of his past where he had reacted violently, it had been for the safety of others, and yet, he found himself caught in an internal struggle.

It hadn't been so long ago that he had been given a gift, the gift of immortality, perhaps one of the most sought after treasures. His earlier high school memories were full of joy, avoiding his miniature 'harem' as some had called it, rescuing the youkai world, and falling in love with the love of his life, Moka-chan.

Moka and Tsukune finally became an admitted couple upon their graduation from the academy, and with the blessings of Moka's father, Lord Akashiya, after a few perilous stunts, were mated. A few months later, and they were married. It had not been a drawn out affair, and there really was no need for an actual marriage, according to Moka's silver haired true form, but under the insistence of Tsukune and the pink haired, outer Moka, she agreed to go through with it.

Their wedding night had been as perfect as either could have wished for, with an absence of awkwardness because neither were virgins, and when they awoke next to each other the next day, they reveled in the peace caused by their acknowledgment of their bond, waking up next to the person they loved most in the world.

Now though, as he sat in his hotel room, weeping internally and externally, hardly able to breathe, he wondered it if had all been some elaborate ruse. His chest quakes had eased slightly and he felt as icy needles began to penetrate his skin, leaving his arms shaking and his legs jerky. He felt the keys in his hands, keys to his old house, a place he used to be able to call a home. The cold teeth were little in the way of his calloused hands, and as Tsukune cried, he tightened his hold more and more. By the time he had regained some semblance of thought, he felt the sharp metal deep in his hand, oozing blood onto the carpet.

He still heard her moans, her begging, pleading for Gin to never stop, and the more he heard them, the worse he shook. Unbidden images of Gin and Moka sprang to life, his thrusting, her clawing, and her biting unwilling to allow his exhausted mind a moment of rest. The fact that he had not actually witnessed the act with his eyes did not sway his heart in the least, and his mind willingly provided every possible worse nightmare. He saw her moaning, kissing Gin's neck, relishing in the feel of his body and hers, just as she had done with him. He felt the blood she drew from Gin's back, as she had drawn his own the same way many times.

He had tried to drown out the rhythmic squeaks and creaks of his bed's springs and headboard shifting and banging against the wall. Tsukune tried convincing himself that it wasn't his wife calling out in pleasure, tried convincing himself that it was some random harlot that wasn't his dear Moka-chan. Yet, when her voice began a near high pitched wail, he recognized the tone of his lover about to climax. He heard her breathy gasps in between breaths, he heard her speak words that he would rather die than repeat, "Are you close?" and the banging increased, speeding up. Through the walls his vampiric senses picked up Gin's reply.

"Yea", Tsukune heard his dog-like panting, deep laboring breaths. "Can I?" was the next question that came from his mouth, and Tsukune's already tormented heart experienced the ultimatum of anguish at her reply. "Go ahead, finish" The noises slowed, but got louder; they had lost their rhythm and his mind knew what it meant.

The deathly quiet that followed rolled on for seconds, possibly hours, and Tsukune was frozen, unable to leave, to assure his heart what his logical mind had already accepted. Sheets shifted in the room next to him, and he heard as heavy footsteps approached the thin barrier of his heart. The pale white door to his bedroom opened, and Gin's head came out. He looked at Tsukune, and raised an eyebrow, before smirking.

Moka's tired voice echoed throughout the silent house, a question, "What're you looking at?" Gin tilted his head back, looking back into the room, and Tsukune heard his voice, "Tsukune." He heard her gasp and hushed, "Is he still here?" He saw Gin's body follow the slight motions of a nod, and Tsukune finally caught the smell the permeated his room.

Once three of his five senses had confirmed what his heart was unable to fathom, he shook, and tears finally burst fully from his eyes. His heart banged painfully and before he was able to understand what he was doing himself, he had stood, dropped his phone on the counter, and walked out.

The freezing cold winter of Japan met him, and enveloped his dead heart in a coat of ice, a temporary relief to his pain, by removing his concentration from the situation. Through the snowing winds, he made his way down the street, remembering a hotel being around a block down the road. The walk was hell, and he was thankful for it.

Tsukune hardly glanced at the pretty brunette who he got the room from, and shuffled into his room, before sitting down on the bed, no longer able to hold away the flood. _Why? Why Moka? Why did you..? All for something like that? Why..?_

Tsukune's heart wrenching cries filled the room, before he laid back on the bed, finally releasing the now bent key from his grip. He lay back, and sobbed, felt as his blood, the essence of his immortality given by Moka, dripped from his hand to the floor beside the bed.

Through the night, he waited, believing his tears to have stopped, before his closing eyes would catch a glimpse of Gin's vicious smirk, and he would be awake again. The hollow chambers of his heart that once praised the ground his Moka-chan walked on, now screamed in vengeance, crying for retribution. He knew he could do no certain evil to Moka though, and as much as he hated it, his heart felt her betrayal and tried to get past it.

Tsukune shook himself, a shiver of his silent debt to his prayers for his pain to stop, and stood. The shower of the hotel was small, and the warm water would have hardly cooled him off, but he knew that he could no longer stay still.

He reached in, and cut the water on hot, all the way, without feeling it, and turned to the sink, where a mirror perched, an image of himself in horrid shape staring back. His eyes were bloodshot, and an unusually oily area below his eyes showed the tear trails previously made. His hair was ragged, and still wet from the snow that had melted. By now, the spiked pain in his heart was fading, a dull throb, and a headache to match had already begun.

Tired of staring at himself, Tsukune turned, watching as the steam rolled from the shower. His clothes were slowly peeled off, and he noted his own scars, caused by many a fight for and with Moka. _Moka._ And the tears began anew with just her name. Determined to forget, he shed the rest of his clothing quickly and jumped into the shower.

The first second was what he had waited so long for. The warm embrace of the water hugged his body in a way that it had wished was..._No. I won't go there._ A few moments later though, and his thoughts strayed to Moka. He instinctively thought something was wrong before he felt the first zap. Then, his whole body reflexively coiled like wire, electricity bouncing around inside the shower. Tsukune was unable to utter a word though, his jaw clenched shut, teeth beginning to extend. Finally, getting a breath of air, Tsukune bowed forward, and through the electric storm of the shower began to cough up blood.


	2. Ch 2 A Curse's Blessing

Hello, any and all readers. Hopefully the first chapter did not wound you too much, and you're still here. As a warning not previously mentioned, this is a mature story, and before there can be change, there must be conflict. I'm thankful for reviews, as they keep an old storyteller speaking, and keep the Mistress that you all do so enjoy, well fed, and therefore happy. Without further ado, welcome to Chapter Two.

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Consciousness was a feeling that Tsukune was unsure about as he awoke. The first thing he realized, was that he was naked. The second, was that he faintly felt damp, and that the cold tile floor under his face was cheaply made. It took a moment, but he stood, keeping a weary hand on the sink should his legs decide to give out.

_Why am I on the floor? Who's bathroom is this?_

A look around showed a small bathroom, strictly spartan in all of it's contents_. _Standing and cutting off the running cold shower,Tsukune noticed his clothes on the ground, and quickly threw on the pants before checking his pockets for his phone. That was when his body gave pause, and all of the previous night came back to him. Images happily rushed into his mind at the opportunity, determined to bring about his suffering again. He moaned quietly, sitting down on the closed toilet seat. His hands were bunched in his hair, pulling slightly, enough to sting. _Any kind of pain is better than this!_

Time trickled by slowly, and in a pair of jeans, shirtless, and a wreck, Tsukune began to think, to decide what do to.

_I can't go home, I just can't._

He heard the hotel room open, and a voice, "Hello? Anyone here?" Indifferently he knew that it was the buxom brunette from the counter of the previous night.

Nervous for some reason, he stood and glanced around the corner, noting that she had inspected the small pool of blood on the floor, and had begun to walk towards the bathroom. Instinct guided him, his body straightening against the wall, a ghost in the mist of the jungle. His now unsuspecting visitor stepped a foot past him, and with grace that accompanied a hunter, he was behind her, hardly a breath away.

He found himself leaning over, her delicious scent filling his enhanced senses, her heart pulsing quietly, slightly on edge from the blood, but not hysteric. Then deep down, he felt the change, her instincts beginning to cry out, terrified by the presence of a predator. She spun a one hundred eighty degree turn, looking behind her, but saw nothing.

Tsukune's body had a mind of it's own, standing once again behind her. Before he leaned down, incisors extending, preparing to bite. Another deep breath, and he began to descend, starved beyond control._** How dare you!**_

And he felt himself shocked into reality. She began to spin again, and deciding to avoid any confrontation, he drew a small amount of youki in his body, moving faster than her eye could catch out of the open door ways. He continued to blur through his surroundings, until the city became forest, and he no longer smelt the stagnant odors that accompanied it.

Standing in the wilderness, shirtless and shoeless, in the middle of winter was no brilliant idea, but Tsukune hardly had a choice.

_I nearly bit her..._ he thought to himself, shaking his head.

The quickly escalating headache was making him wobble where he stood, and he briefly wondered about how he had made it that far out of the city in one burst. With youki, some monsters could increase their speed exponentially, giving them a way to move quickly from one location to another. Moka had moved similarly in her released form before, but never had he seen her attempt to go near as far.

Before he could continue that line of thought though, he lurched forward, choking harshly on blood, as it sprayed from his mouth to the ground, mixed with trace amounts of saliva. The crimson liquid looked almost black in the dirt, possibly a reflection of the truth. It burned hellishly in his lungs, and when he was able to stand straight, he remembered the night before.

_It's strange. Usually water only affects me if I'm using my vampiric abilities. Why did it shock me, and what was that feeling at the end? _

A brief memory of his agonized body pulling itself from the water was the only thing that gave him any indication of how he had survived.

Standing in the wilderness basically was doing him no good, so he began to follow the random dirt road that he had stopped at. A few twists and turns slowly crept past, before he heard the roar of an engine, and spotted a familiar bus pulling up behind him. Tsukune hadn't felt happy in a few days, but when he saw a symbol that connected himself to his old friends, minus a few, he felt himself smile for a moment. Then, his apathetic mask slipped into place, unsure of whether or not it was safe for the bus driver to know the affairs of his personal life.

The yellow bus pulled to a stop beside him, and the doors slid open, before a ring of smoke floated down to him. "What's it this time kid?" A voice that used to always give him chills rang out, but he couldn't bring himself to care about the near dead tone, this time.

"Can you take me to the exorcist?" Tsukune asked, an inquisitive eyebrow rising slightly, against the idea of walking anywhere.

"Of course, he'd love to see _you_ I'm sure." he spoke, quiet and with a hint of the creepy smile he seemed to have learned from the exorcist.

"You should really get that smile checked out." Tsukune spoke, as he stepped up onto the bus, laying across the first row of seats with his hands behind his head. He tried to ignore the burning in his chest that happened before and after he had begun to cough up blood.

"There's a storm brewing" the driver spoke softly, dark with a hint of a chuckle, as he pulled the doors shut, and began to drive the bus in some random direction.

Tsukune chose not to answer, and instead asked a question of his own. "Why would the exorcist want to see me?"

The bus driver smiled, though Tsukune couldn't see it, "Only he would know." His hat covered his strange eyes from Tsukune's angle and he couldn't tell whether or not the bus driver was enjoying his confusion.

Tsukune wisely chose not to think about it, and lay back down, trying to get at least a few hours of semi-comfortable sleep, after all, no one ever fought on the Youkai Academy bus.

"It's been a while..." Tsukune thought of his old school. The adventures they'd had, and the heartbreak that it had all ended with. Mizore had left, moving on with her life, eventually married. Kurumu had not been as complacent though, and after a scene where she nearly tore down half of is hometown, she had been exiled. Ruby stayed, an apprentice of perhaps the greatest wielder to ever walk the earth. The last time he had seen Yukari, she was actually planning on helping Ruby, or possibly becoming a teacher at the academy. Lost in his thoughts, his long ride on the bus went smoothly. When he felt the bus pull to a stop a few hours later, he stepped out, down on the ground and rolled his eyes. Dead trees were everywhere, the ground was just dirt, and there seemed to be no signs of life at all.

Tsukune turned to thank the bus driver, but only found empty space, the bus already gone. Shrugging, Tsukune turned to walk towards his old academy. The trail was narrow, and hardly straight, but he began to walk, thinking about the sudden bouts of coughing.

_Now I'm sick, great._

He thought, stopping at a spot where the path narrowed. Tsukune calmly walked up, sitting back on his heels, taking a hand through the dirt, looking towards the direction he had came, "It was right here." he said, hiccuping slightly as tears threatened to fall again. A bike had shot over the hill, and without warning, Moka had crashed into his life._ I'm such a baby._ He thought, but couldn't bring himself to stop the few tears that trickled down his face. No longer satisfied with wallowing in his pain, Tsukune began to turn and briskly walk towards the academy. When the familiar building came into sight, he saw the many students running around, chattering on the other side of the closed gates, holding their books, without a care in the world.

Sardonically he smirked at their innocence, remembering how unsafe his years at Youkai Academy had been. When he stood before the tall iron gates, he looked back and forth, searching for a handle. Seeing none, he reached out to grab the metal. Less than a second after his hand had touched the cool metal, it began to swing away, opening as if it had been waiting for him. The old school was the same as it had been since the day he left, run down and generally resembling a giant haunted house.

Students parted before the stranger that smiled nostalgically as he walked, half-naked, unknowingly showing a bit of his youki to split the crowd. When he pushed double doors at the front, he was reminded of times when Mizore popped out of the ceiling, when Kurumu had suffocated him, when Ruby had shared her masochistic fantasies, and even when Yukari begged for threesomes between him and Moka. _Moka. _He thought again.

_I just can't seem to escape you can I?_

An old enemy met him inside, Kuyou of the campus 'police'. Tsukune remembered the fight, if not all out battle that had happened between them. Kuyou's power had been immense, his fox form deadly. The only reason Tsukune had survived was because his friends took the attention while the inner Moka gave him the blood to survive.

_In a round about way, I could thank him for giving me the strength to protect my friends._

"Why are you staring at my face like that?" Tsukune hadn't noticed but he had slowly paused and was staring with a flat expression directly at Kuyou. Kuyou hadn't particularly changed, his hair cut shorter, a few small scars across his face, likely from the fight, or working for the exorcist.

_Good to see someone hasn't changed much._

Although Kuyou wouldn't admit it, when Tsukune had stopped, not falling in line as he had presumed, he was slightly edgy. In his last encounter with Tsukune, the youth had been given the blood of an S-classed vampire, allowing him to gain demonic strength and speed that few could match, even if temporary. A few rumors had spread that Tsukune had eventually become a second-born, a vampire made by the slow corruption of his blood; Kuyou was in no way willing to test them.

"It's nothing," Tsukune spoke, "I was just realizing that you haven't changed much physically, besides the slight haircut."

Kuyou rubbed an anxious hand through his blond hair, "Yea, the exorcist made me cut it some. Didn't really explain why though." His hair had been a direct representation of his pride, and when forced to cut it some, it had bothered him immensely.

Tsukune seemed to have stopped paying attention by then though, and had begun to walk in the direction that he knew the exorcist's office was. The halls hadn't changed much, students walking to and fro, some laughing near the stairs, others standing in small groups. His senses picked up their heartbeats, their whispered conversations, the smell on their breath, and even their natural forms' scents.

A young man walked past him, hardly noticing how everyone naturally avoid Tsukune, and Tsukune caught the scent of his true form. It was ironic that the first youkai to walk close to him was the same type of being that he had once nearly been killed by. Through the carefully maintained image and wash, the young student had nearly completely covered up the strong smell of his hybrid ancestry. The smell of orc was subtle, but Tsukune picked it up. Girls giggled nearby, and his nose identified them as harpies. Two rooms over someone was enjoying themselves in a way he had not with his woman during school.

_She always was a bit... of a prude, well up until yesterday._

Kuyou interrupted his thoughts suddenly, "Tsukune, the exorcist will not wait long." his tone was frosty, already tired of waiting. Tsukune gave him a look but nodded, "Yea, I guess you're right."

Kuyou and Tsukune did not speak again until they arrived in one of the darker, deeper areas of the school, outside the exorcist's office. Ancient runes glowed along the door, casting an ominous light around the area, and even Tsukune's vampiric hearing and smell could identify nothing beyond the door.

Tsukune gave one final nod to Kuyou before knocking, and hearing the "Enter." from the other side. If Tsukune were honest with himself, he'd admit that he was worried about speaking to the exorcist. The man, if he could be called that, always knew so much, too much really. However, he knew that he needed some help, and the exorcist was one of the best to have on his side.

Stepping inside, Tsukune felt like he had entered an old forgotten library. Tomes lay open in random places, dust all around, and a general sense of dread filled the room. Shadows covered vast expanses of the room, so much so that he could hardly tell where the walls were. Archaic runes flowed all around the floor, runes shaping runes, shaping runes that he didn't even begin to comprehend. A small couch was off to the side, next to a bookshelf, and a desk sat in the center of the room, piled high with papers new and old. The exorcist sat calmly in the chair, not moving at all, as if frozen in time.

However, once Tsukune made it to the two chairs that sat in front of his desk, he motioned for Tsukune to sit. "You've began coughing up blood?" the exorcist spoke slowly, deliberately, rhetorical, just asking for confirmation.

"I don't think it's that bad, sir. Nothing that would require your attention." Tsukune spoke slowly, almost shy in front of the man who had saved his life in the past few years too many times.

"Spoken like a true vampire." The exorcist's glowing eyes narrowed, and Tsukune noticed his hand sitting on the Rosary of Judgment, beginning to trail his fingers along the edge.

"I hear you've had a fight with the Mrs. Aono?" he said, eyes now holding his gaze.

"I did." Tsukune could not lie to him, as much as he wanted to argue it was his own personal business, his body disagreed. The exorcist nodded slowly, leaning back in his chair, removing his hands from the rosary to steeple them on the arms of his chair.

"You do know that you're not allowed here now that you've graduated, without my express permission, correct?" The exorcist asked, keeping his eyes locked on Tsukune.

"I'm sorry, I had no where to go." Tsukune spoke softly, ashamed.

"You have a home, a wife. Her family is quite rich; I'm sure they could shelter you." The exorcist had not moved, and was staring intently.

"My house is no longer a home. I can't go to Moka's family about this." Tsukune kept his head down, regardless of the natural predisposition of a vampire to do the opposite.

"I'm afraid that that doesn't change anything. These principles keep our society safe, guarded, and controlled. What could have warranted you to cross, illegally, with knowledge of the consequences?"

Tsukune's mouth opened and closed a few times, his mind racing to come up with something to say.

_Shuzen will kill me if it gets out that his daughter is unfaithful, it'll kill his image. Moka will too. _

"I...I...can't."

"Then I've got no choice but to call a meeting between myself and your dark lord. We will decide what to do in your case." The glowing eyes were darkening slightly, "Take him to the guest quarters. No one I don't authorize is allowed in."

For a moment Tsukune wondered who he had spoken to. Then he felt a hand pull his head backwards, to the chair. Before he could think about his actions, Tsukune violently grabbed and twisted his would be attacker's arm, hearing a satisfying snap, before releasing it, and springing into action. His chair was flipped backwards onto the original attacker, and his other hand caught a bladed limb coming from the dark in his peripherals. The edge cut slightly into his palm, opening the left over wound of the key.

Before he could continue, an icy chill set over the area, dragging his breath from his body forcefully. He panted, his breath smokey in the cold, his body heating up to counter the sudden freezing temperature. His next plans were trumped when glowing eyes opened behind the desk, and seemingly thousands of pounds of weight began forcefully pushing his body to the ground.

The blade was brought down to the back of his neck, and in the dark he saw an ethereal shape behind the calm exorcist, a vicious faced creature with horns and clawed hands, floating in a ragged cloak, a sharp tanto in it's jagged toothed mouth.

The cold blade at his neck brought his mind back to his current predicament.

_What was that!_ _Why did I do that! I was going to kill them! _

The exorcist's calm voice entered his ear again, "Take him to the lock down room. Have Ruby posted as his guard. He won't hurt her."

Tsukune felt a needle pressed into his back, and a thick liquid being forced under his skin. His world went black quickly after. After the guards had picked up the tranquilized vampire and left the room, the exorcist reigned in his form, locking the fierce aura away with precise control. He thought over the interaction, remembering key points during which Tsukune would act differently.

_Tsukune doesn't want to risk exposing something._

His hands rose, rubbing the area between his eyes on his nose. He had saw the uncontrolled glaring eyes of the ghoul a moment before Tsukune had reacted to being pulled straight. The way Tsukune had moved was too controlled though for the ghoul, too...smart. He had decimated one opponent, and disabled another before the exorcist could even draw breath.

_If it had not been for my quick intervention, this could have gotten bloody. I need to do some research._


	3. Ch 3 Who's Your Master?

Hello again. Looks like I'm back with another chapter of the tale. This one should continue to fuel the small fire I've begun to grow in your hearts, and hopefully by the end, the before mentioned lesson will be taught. Oh, and if you're interested in some good music for the chapter, I'd recommend 'Breath' by Breaking Benjamin. Now, I won't keep you any longer. Read to see, Chapter 3.

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_Being forced unconscious so often can't be a good thing._

Light slowly entered Tsukune's eyes, a glare that caused his depth perception to hemorrhage, spinning out of control. He tried to sit up, his body complaining in protest, the strong effects of the drug forced into his body fighting against his motor functions. When he clenched his fist, it hardly even tightened, an indicator of just how powerful the drug had been. A soft voice interrupted his sluggish thoughts and body.

"Take it slow. That was quite a dose of ketamine." The voice was feminine, a melodic voice that called to the sudden burning in his throat. Need filled him and his blood began to slowly stir, fighting off the adverse effects of the drug.

_Ketamine...?_

"You pumped me full of horse tranquilizer?" Tsukune's groggy voice strained with the effort to speak. A hand rose, sliding up his lower back to find where the knotted strain of tranquilizer was being fought off by his blood, causing a slight clump and some of the liquid to ooze down his back. Pulling his hand back around, Tsukune paid close attention to the cloudy clear liquid with a red hue in it.

"We hardly had a choice. You put up such a fight; so unlike you Tsukune-kun." the smooth way the voice rolled out to his left, created a nostalgic mood, and yet through his slight delirium, he couldn't identify the person standing so close, so tempting.

A slow deep breath in through his nose rose without his bidding. He knew her taste before his nose had, and the earthy arcane magic was thick on her, a spice that made his stomach clench up, protesting it's shortage of blood.

Vaguely he realized that the improved canines in his mouth had extended, an subconscious act, instinct forcing him to try to feed from the female in the room. Lazily his body slumped back onto the soft sheets under him, coughing feebly for a second before laying still, closing his eyes. He listened, guided by instinct feigning sleep or death, attracting his prey closer. The radar of youki in his mind kept a close eye on her movements, heart rate, and other things he hardly could understand, focusing only on what he wanted, her life force, her blood.

* * *

Ruby was slightly worried. Tsukune had woke, stirring slightly, before sitting up and groaning. The cute little sloppy way he rubbed his eyes, trying to clench his fists through the drug induced stupor brought a smile on her face. It was like watching your crush suddenly be turned into a baby again, cute in a way that made you want to cuddle them. Warningly, she told him to take it slow, admitting to dosing him up with a bit too much ketamine.

When he had immediately knew what it was, she had been surprised, admittedly. The exasperation in his voice had made her want to apologize but she settled for admitting that it needed after his stunt. She had begun to get out a can of juice for him, when he coughed lightly, and lay back. She watched paused from her spot near the small refrigerator, as his breathing stopped.

A second crawled by, before another. Then another. Panicking slightly Ruby began to walk towards the bed where he lay. His body had still not taken a breath, and Ruby noticed how pale he was, more so than usual.

* * *

Tsukune waited patiently, sure that he could hold his breath a bit more if needed. Her heart was speeding up, and the first signs of desperation showed as she took a few halting steps in his direction. He made sure that he stayed perfectly still, waiting. Another few steps and she was almost in range. The last step to stand beside his bed was timed precisely, and his body moved of it's own accord. Muscles and tendons stronger than steel slid smoothly wrapping around her, faster than she could resist. A hip twist and she was buried beneath his body in the bed. A hand through her hair tugged insistently backwards, baring her pale neck and collar bone. The heart below his own was erratic, pumping blood generously throughout her body, bringing a flush to her chest and face.

Tsukune slowly nuzzled her neck, preparing for the red ichor that would soon quench his cramping stomach. Then, leaning forward, he opened his mouth wide, incisors aligning themselves with the pulsing blood vessel just beneath her flawless skin. A gasp escaped his victim, as the sharp teeth broke skin, before she went silent, unmoving.

The first second, Tsukune did nothing, holding his teeth buried in her neck. The second, taking a deep breath through his nose, and the third, taking his first generous swallow. The warm liquid, thicker than water slowly made it's way down his throat to his stomach, where the pains eased. Again, and again he swallowed, forgetting his surroundings, situation, and present predicament. And when he felt the fires of his thirst quench, he drew back, ready to run his tongue over the two holes from which the blood was given. Instead, a hand rose, feminine, and cupped the area, glowing briefly, before moving away to reveal two small scars.

His eyes finally lowered, taking in the victim of his unfortunate loss in control. Vibrant violet eyes met his now red eyes. He took in the dark hair, the panting breath, and pale skin, and finally knew who lay under him.

"Ruby..."

She continued to breath lightly for a few seconds before reaching up a slightly weak hand to run it through his hair. "So greedy, So unlike you Tsukune." He took a deep breath, wiping the edge of red stained lips on the sheet of the bed, before bringing her close, cradling her weak body.

His eyes began to tear up when she slowly wrapped her arms around him. She smiled a weak smile though, and a tear stole it's way down Tsukune's cheek, before he started apologizing and crying lightly "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So sorry. I didn't mean to Ruby. I didn't want to hurt you, I didn't mean to take so much., I..I-I was just so hungry..." A finger silenced his ramblings and she shook her head causing her dark tresses to slide along his arm.

"It's alright Tsukune-kun. If you were so thirsty, all you had to do was ask." A red tinge took up residence on her face, and then she continued, "Though I'll admit this way was nice too."

Tsukune gaped, mouth open at her openness towards him, and after the momentary stun, he shook his head. "It wasn't right. I shouldn't have done that without your permission."

"Tsukune, Tsukune. I'm okay. Everything's fine. I'm a little light headed, but it's nothing to worry about." She began to sit up, and quickly pulled herself from Tsukune's lap, realizing said positioning. After a small stumble, and Tsukune twitching forward from his spot on the bed, possibly to catch her in the case that she falls, she walked back to the table where she had previously stood, and picked up the box of juice.

Tsukune watched as she delicately walked her way back to him, juice in hand. She had aged slowly, hardly looking a year older than when they had fought at the 'Witches' Knoll', while he himself had aged considerately. Her hair was black as her raven companions, and the wrappings in it hadn't changed, while his once brown hair had begun to get darker, a contrast to his vampiric form, which had light blonde, almost silvery white hair, possibly due to Moka's blood.

_It's hard not to think about someone when they've affected every aspect of your life..._

"How do you feel?" Ruby asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Bitterly, and unable to explain Tsukune sighed out, "Free." The word at face value would have seemingly been a good thing, but with his dark tone, and already sad eyes, it had came out like a curse.

"What's wrong?" Ruby's head tilted, and as she stood there, tall over him, Tsukune wondered if this was a ruse, a machination by the exorcist to figure out what had happened.

"I can't tell you." _Your loyalty will always lay with your current master; such is the life of a witch._

One of her hands rose, and rubbed through his thick hair, pushing the dark colored locks back, fingers sliding along his scalp. Tsukune couldn't help reflexively leaning into the delicate hand. Another joined it, and Tsukune felt the trace amounts of youki she was emitting through her finger tips, pushing back the throbbing headache that had accompanied thoughts of Moka lately.

"Okay, Tsukune." He glanced up, and through his hooded eyes saw her accepting eyes, eyes that cared only for his comfort. The look only made his already torn heart ache more, and he felt ashamed, wanting so badly to share his woes, release his feelings.

_I can't bring her into this._

"You don't understand..." he croaked, almost a sob, as he buried his own hands in his hair in place of hers that had slowly removed themselves. He wasn't totally sure she wasn't using a give and take method to getting information, but he was sure that if she were, it was working.

"I don't have to. I trust you; if you want me involved you'll ask me." the words were soothing, and Tsukune fought the calming effect they had on his mind and body.

_I want to be angry! It hurts to calm down, it hurts to think, it hurts to feel!_

His hands had begun to rake through his hair now, beginning to pull, as he had done in the hotel room to relieve the stress with physical pain. Then he felt her hands replace his again, calmly brushing his own larger, calloused hands aside. As she continued to brush through his hair with her fingers, Tsukune sat in silence.

After an indefinite amount of minutes, Tsukune reached his hands up again, to grasp her own tightly to his hair, as he bowed forward, sitting in an almost fetal position. His hands gripped her's tighter and tighter and finally a few broken words escaped his lips.

"She had sex with Gin."

He left no doubt as to who the 'she' was, and his ears picked up her smothered sudden intake of breath, before he continued, "She brought him into our house, our **home**, and then let him take her on **our** bed."

His inner sensor felt as Ruby's energy fluctuated slightly, and the hands he held in his hair clenched lightly, in sympathy. She waited in silence, and finally Tsukune spoke again.

"It just hurts so bad. So bad, to know, to hear it, see it, and smell it again and again." The hands had soothingly begun to let out the pain relieving energy again into his scalp, and unwilling to feel it stop, Tsukune finished, "I don't know what to do; I can't fight this head on, like I've always done for my friends. It was something she chose to do."

Ruby quieted any further rambling, and spoke softly, "As much as we would like things to go perfectly, it can't, always." She slowly extracted her limbs from his own as she took a step to sit down beside him. She pulled him over, laying his head in her lap as she leaned back.

"You've upset the master a good bit, though he won't admit it."

"I can't just tell him. You know that."

"I can."

"You won't." The way he had stated it, had the next sentence that had almost escaped, halt in her throat.

"I won't?" The slightly demanding way he had decided for her sent a shiver down her spine, a reminder of her unspoken high school desires as they began working their way back into her mind. _I thought I was past that._

"The exorcist can't know yet. Only three, now four know of the incident, and you know what'd happen if it got out." One of his hands now lay off the edge of the bed, hanging, and Ruby could tell that even though his body had shook off the effects of the drug, his internal clock was already ticking towards sleep. The silence slowly crept on, and once she was sure that Tsukune had begun to sleep off his emotional trauma, she tried to get up. Tsukune's arms had wound their way around her though, and as much as she tried to pry them off, could not without waking him up.

Thinking of an idea, Ruby began to focus her arcane abilities into producing the calming effect she had used on his scalp. The arms loosened, but when she lowered the flow, they returned to their previous positions. Smiling, Ruby pulled from her side a small smooth golden colored ring. It emitted a trace amount of her personal magical signature, and when she brought it close to his face, his arms released her to hold onto the ring.

Ruby watched as his large hands closed around the tiny object, and as she turned to walk away heard his calmed sigh in sleep. _I'm sorry Tsukune, I can't risk sleeping near or with you right now._

Her smooth slippers made hardly any noise as she walked out of the room and past the two guards that nodded at her. A few flights of stairs and twists and turns past more guards had her at the door to the exorcist. Before she could knock she heard the quiet, "Enter."

The doors opened with a simple pull, and she stepped into the dusty office. The exorcist sat behind his chair and as usual his body was perfectly still, eyes on her.

"Have you done as I asked?" he dragged out the words on purpose, making sure to show his dominate position as her teacher.

"I have." The words had left her lips without her permission, and she briefly wondered if some kind of compulsion had been placed on her, but then realizing that the headmaster would hardly have to use one, dropped the thought.

"And?"

"He hasn't spoken much. Whatever happened has been at the very least mildly traumatic, worth looking into." Ruby made sure to keep her tone and voice quick and even.

The exorcist's hands clenched lightly, in a tight bunch, almost like praying before he tilted his cowled head to the side ever so slowly. "Are you hiding something from me?"

Ruby's voice started to speak, and other words threatened to escape, before she calmed herself. The urge to tell him everything, down to the slightest detail, was present and if it weren't for Tsukune's demand, Ruby was sure she wouldn't have been able to control herself. "No. I soothed his nerves though for now; maybe when he wakes up, he'll talk more. He's actually sleeping at the moment."

The exorcist smiled slightly, only a tad fierce and creepy. "The stress hard on him?"

"He says he doesn't know what to do. Whatever the problem is, it has him shook up. I've never seen him so weak."

"Ah." The exorcist nodded, turning his eyes to the shelves surrounding the two of them. He mumbled to no one, "All of this knowledge, all text on understanding human and youkai morals, and yet, none of it defines him."

"Maybe that's because Tsukune is hardly either?" Ruby's eyebrow was rose, questioning.

The headmaster let out a lighthearted chuckle, "That is true."

Ruby waited for the exorcist to continue with his questioning, and when none came, she shifted her feet slightly. "Is there anything else? I would like to be there when he wakes. He'll be more trusting if it seems I'm watching over him."

The exorcist nodded his head, "Yes, you can go."

Ruby smiled, bowed and stood to leave, but when she got to the door, heard his voice again, humor laced throughout, "Wasn't that a bit high a dosage?"

Ruby resisted the urge to groan and continued out the door silently, acting as if she had not heard him. "Details, details."

One the door had clicked shut again, the headmaster stood up, and began to rummage through his hastily stacked books on the desk. After clearing a few away , he smiled at the small aged notebook, a diary. The front was leather, nothing wrote, and only a small cross pressed into the fabric. Carefully the exorcist opened the groaning pages of the small book. The first page brought a smile to his face. "The diary of Janos Vitez."


	4. Ch 4 With Family

_Hello again everyone, or anyone? Either way, I had a few rough points writing this chapter, as honestly it was out of my usual forte, but I think it turned out well, so let me hear your opinions on what's happened. An enormous amount of help and patience on the dear Lady's part may be the only reason it is even here for you to read. Read to learn more of Chapter Four._

The cold and quiet house did little to calm Moka's nerves. It had been a day since her last argument with Tsukune, and the events that followed. At first, she had expected him to come back, crying, possibly angry, and hurt. She knew that there would be a small apology and then they would work on moving past the event, however after waiting in the house alone for hours, the vampiress was beginning to worry.

_Where is he?_

Moka stood from her spot on the couch, and walked into the kitchen, thirsty and hoping to wet her dry throat. _I wish Tsukune was here._

She began pouring a small glass of juice when she noticed something from the corner of her eye. Walking to the rug behind the counter, Moka picked up the small phone, Tsukune's phone. _Explains why he hasn't answered it._

Moka flipped it open, ignoring the three missed calls message and began to see if anyone else had tried to contact him, possibly telling her where he went. Let down though, Moka saw that she was the only one.

_Has he gone to father...?_

A dark, haughty voice interrupted her thoughts though, and was quick to respond, **_No, that's not like Tsukune. Too meek. He'll come back._**

_When?_

**_I'm not a psychic._**

_Then how do you know he'll be back?_

**_This is Tsukune we're talking about._**

Moka paced still, and after a moments hesitation put Tsukune's phone on the counter. Giving up temporarily she walked to her's and Tsukune's bedroom, determined to prepare the house for his return. The room that greeted the young wife was cold, and lonely. The sheets were crumpled, only laying half on the bed, and when she grabbed them, Moka's hands met damp spots, whether with sweat or other fluids, she didn't care to know.

After stripping the bed down, and proceeding to put them in the washer, Moka decided a bath was in order, still smelling of her extra-curricular activities. The water was warm, and safe thanks to a small bag of herbs, before she climbed in, laying back and letting her stressed muscles relax.

Slowly, she lathered up her body, delicate around her chest and neck. The fresh welts and bruises there spoke of the erratic sex she had participated in. Her thoughts were interrupted however when the house phone rang. Moka sat up, allowing the water to spill off of her as she walked out of the bathroom and over to the phone. Standing nude in her bedroom, she pressed the buttons, and it came to life as a mechanical voice at the other end said, "Hello? Moka, it's Kasumi, can I speak to Tsukune?"

Moka smiled and responded, "Sure, just a sec." Then turned and yelled, "Tsukune! Your mom's on the phone!" However, when an empty house greeted her, the habitual call seemed stupid and she almost blushed at herself.

"Um, I'm sorry Mrs. Aono, I forgot, Tsukune's not here right now."

"Oh, where'd he go?" Kasumi's voice was clueless, and it gave Moka a moments rest to know he hadn't let his mother know of their personal issues.

"I'm not sure. He'll be back soon though. I'll let him know you called."

After a short and sweet goodbye, Tsukune's mom hung up, and Moka was once again stuck in the silence, now naked and beginning to get cold. The lonely beauty leaned over, and lay on the bare bed, wrapping her arms around her goose bump covered body. Laying in the bed alone, wishing Tsukune was there, Moka's mind began to take in what she had done.

A knock resounded through the halls of her desolate house, and startled, Moka quickly dressed herself in a bathrobe and slippers before walking to answer the door. Before another knock could occur, Moka calmly opened the door, half hoping to see Tsukune.

Dark brown hair, and brown eyes met her, while Gin smiled charmingly. "Sorry, I forgot my necklace." He put his hand on the back of his head as his eyes closed slightly from his smile. Moka inhaled slightly at meeting him again so soon after their extra-marital affair, and immediately noticed he had showered and added more cologne.

Moka stood aside in a slight daze, opening the door more allowing him to step in, where he immediately began walking towards the bedroom. Moka watched silently as his charming features disappeared through the doorway to what was once her's and Tsukune's personal sanctuary. After realizing she was standing at the door alone, Moka closed it and walked to the bedroom.

Gin stood looking around the near the bed, lifting the mattress and searching the area surrounding for his precious pendant. A glance under the bed revealed a glint, and after reaching his hand into the darkness, he pulled out his wolf necklace. He stayed crouched, back turned as he spoke.

"When you pulled off my shirt it slipped off with it. I didn't notice it until after I left." Gin slowly slipped the necklace back around his neck, and stood, back popping loudly.

He shook his head for a second, "Never had that happen before."

Moka said nothing, instead waiting on him to take the initiative to leave.

He continued, "Of course, I've never had a few other things happen either before last night." The smile on his face caused an uneasy feeling to settle in Moka's stomach, somewhere between butterflies and queasy.

Gin had already noticed her attire though and made a show of slowly walking to stand in front of and tall over the now unfaithful wife. "Where's Tsukune?"

She tried to sound sure of herself when she spoke, but the weak voice that emerged was nothing like what she had hoped for. "He hasn't come back."

Gin let an amused smirk creep onto face before reaching out a hand, running it along her jaw, before continuing past her ear and through her long, let down hair. "His loss." He leaned in suddenly, arms wrapping around her, face pulling close to Moka's.

Before his lips could connect though, Moka shoved him away, and spoke softly. "I'm married, and you need to leave."

Gin's smirk grew at that, "Hardly have any right to say that now, Moka-chan."

The way the words came from his mouth hurt Moka, and in desperation she shook her head, pointing towards the doorway that would lead to the living room and subsequently outside. "Leave."

Gin's hands raised, a sign of surrender. "Alright Moka, but I'll remind you. You invited me in yesterday, and as much as you would like to think that ended then, it won't."

**_Tell him to leave, now! _**Inner Moka finally got involved in the exchange.

Moka jumped at the sudden frightening voice in her head and squeaking, "Ura says 'leave now'."

Gin's eyes widened slightly and for a second fear flashed across his face. Then he schooled himself and calmly nodded. "As you wish." His handsome features disappeared and Moka heard as the door shut behind him. The interaction caused her to shake slightly, and a need for blood arose. Moka walked to the refrigerator and after pulling open a secret side compartment inside, retrieved one of two cold packets of blood.

_I never would have thought I'd need this. Tsukune was right about emergencies._

She quickly bit through the plastic, and began to drink the cool liquid. _It's better directly from the source._ Moka thought to herself.

**_Tsukune's blood is indeed much better fresh._**

_Why isn't he back yet? _Outer Moka asked.

**_I can't be sure, but it's been too long now. We need to see where he went._**

_How are we supposed to do that?_

**_You're a vampire, follow his scent!_**

The phone rang for the second time that day, and sighing Moka rubbed the bridge between her nose and forehead as she answered, "Hello?"

"Moka dear! How's my little imouto?" Moka frowned hearing her eldest sister Ria's voice.

"He's fine, is there something you need?" Moka asked, trying to keep calm.

_If Ria suspects anything, this will go bad really fast._

**_Then don't let her._**

"Actually yes-" A knock interrupted their conversation, and Moka was beginning to get peeved. Hurriedly Moka rhetorically asked Ria, "Can you hold on a second?" and then set down the phone.

The pink haired vampire quickly made her way to the door and opening it began, "Gin, I told you to lea-"

"Oh me, oh my, who's Gin? And what was he doing here with you while you're in a bathrobe?" Ria's dark hair was perfectly brushed and maintained, her lips deep wine red, and eye lashes fluttering lengthily.

Moka was speechless.

"Where's Tsukune?"

"He's not here right now." Moka's head tilted slightly and her momentary scare was in the back of her mind.

"Well, we'll have to get him later then. Father has demanded your presence."

"So, where's my dear brother-in-law?" Ria's hand slowly swirled the wine in her glass, the other hand in lap. She kept her eyes curiously looking outside of the limo, watching other vehicles pass, and the people walking on the streets.

"That's none of your business." Moka replied frostily.

**_Tell her nothing. We have no reason to speak to her._**

"Sister dear, it became my business when father ordered me to come get you. How is he? Still as virile?"

Moka said nothing, rubbing her eyes reflexively. Ria though, resisted the urge to roll her own, leaning forward, and before Moka could think, snapping the rosario off of the chain. The dark presence of suffocating youki was quickly contained by the runed limo, and in mere moments a totally new person sat across from Ria.

"Are you going to be a bit more cordial?" Ria asked

"I have nothing to speak to you about." the now silver haired Moka crossed her legs slowly, reaching to the side to claim a similar drink to Ria, before going silent.

"How about Tsukune? He was so delectable, and I find myself wondering whether or not his blood ages like wine, better through time."

The slight twitches in the fine lined muscles of Moka's legs, and her silence, detailed Moka's telltale signs of anger. The pallor of her skin, and the all too conscious control of her breathing gave Ria all the fuel she needed for the fire.

"You know, I always did find that birthmark on his inner thigh cute; as well as the way his cock turned up just a bit. Always tickled in just the right places. Of course, that was when I was on my knees. He ever take you that way? I know I got to enjoy it. He could be so rough when he pulled my hair." Ria ran her hands soothingly through her dark locks, reminiscing, feeling the phantom hands repeating the intimate pull.

Moka's youki spiked for a moment, and Ria smiled an irksome smile. "Does that bother you Moka? Did you never let him do the same to you?"

"I will not allow you to get a rise out of me Ria." Moka spoke calmly but her flashing eyes gave way to her frustration.

Ria laughed, eyes twinkling merrily. "You never have! You poor prude! He can be such fun when he's aggressive."

"Do not speak of what you don't understand!" Moka spoke harshly.

"I'd bet it was your pride, huh? It couldn't handle placing yourself in such a subservient position, you probably thought it too degrading." Ria's smile was that of the cat that got the canary. Moka smartly stayed quiet turning to the window. A pout crept onto Ria's face before she too turned, bored with Moka's responses.

Time ticked on, and before too long, Moka spotted their father's estate. The limo driver was quick to jump out, and open the door for them, bowing gratuitously. Ria and Moka walked side by side to the doors, easily pushing them open despite size and sheer mass. The room that met them was vast, and open. Columns made up the area, black marble reaching tall to the ceiling. Two ornate silver thrones sat farther down the deep red carpet, raised above the rest of the room. Upon one throne sat Issa Shuzen, the leader of one of the largest congregations of vampires in existence. Upon the other sat a robed figure. When Moka saw the pink hair falling from under the hood though, she froze.

Ignoring the formal bow that Ria made, Moka stood staring at the hooded feminine body on the second throne. A pause, and then an uttered, "...Mother?" was all that Ria heard before her eyes widened as the hood was thrown back to reveal a face near identical to her sister's.

Issa and Akasha stayed fixedly iron though, faces perfectly still and set. Issa spoke first, eyes on Moka. "Yes, your mother, Akasha, is back, though the circumstances are not the best.", his tone was controlled, and Ria could tell only because she had been around him so often, that anger was hidden behind his mask. Worried at what would cause her lord and father such anger, Ria kept her eyes away from the throne avoiding any form of confrontation.

"What circumstances?" asked Moka, red eyes still on her now revealed mother.

Issa though ignored the question and spoke another, "Where is your mate?"

The hush that fell over the area was deafening, and after a few seconds of silence, Moka replied, "He wasn't home when Ria came to pick me up. What is it you need?"

Akasha spoke for the first time since Moka and Ria had arrived, "We need to know why your husband was found in Mikogami's territory. Mikogami as of this moment has complete rights to do with Tsukune what he will. Thankfully, he sent a message to me on the matter, and I may be able to dissuade him from dealing out any of the more severe forms of punishment. To do that though, I need to know why Tsukune was there in the first place."

Moka shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable with discussing her personal life in front of Ria. "We had an argument. He left."

"Mikogami seems intently interested in how deep the argument goes and expressed such to me. What kind of argument would cause your mate to act as he has?" Akasha asked.

"I would prefer it if we were to discuss this more privately, mother." Moka stated, fists clenched.

Akasha stared at her daughter for a full minute before replying. "As you wish. Rest now. You look tired. I will speak to you later."

Ria noticeably frowned.


	5. Ch 5 Thicker Than Mud

_Its been a while everyone, because of multiple things, but I've finally gotten down to writing and finishing this chapter. On a brighter note, in this chapter, the smallest of clues shows the largest of futures, so keep your eyes open, analyze it all, and overall, enjoy yourself. Not all good things begin that way, or seem that way when working for our characters._

_

* * *

_Thicker Than Mud Ch 5_  
_

Tsukune's eyes opened slowly, heavy lids forcefully brought back through his willpower. The bed felt cold, and he shivered, rubbing his hands up and down his arms. A cursory yawn and look around the room showed the mop of black hair that was Ruby relaxed, sleeping in a chair in the corner.

Tsukune stood, and noticed that in his hands, he held a small ring. Warmth emanated from it, _Magic_ he supposed. Ruby seemed to be cold though, so he put his current curiosity aside and wrapped her up in the light blanket that they had left on him. She evidently was over worked. Careful, he tried to pick her up, preparing to take her to the bed, and sit in the chair himself.

However, upon his arms wrapping themselves under her legs and back, she violently shoved him away and leapt to her feet. Blurry eyed and trying to catch her balance, she fumbled away from him.

Tsukune just stood still, unsure of how to react, or to react at all. Once she seemingly cleared her head, she cast a weary eye on him. "Sorry. You scared me."

Tsukune laughed lightly, "I didn't mean to. I was just trying to let you rest easier..."

Ruby shook her head, before trying to smooth down her hair. "Don't worry about it. I was just startled. Are you hungry?"; upon Tsukune's glance towards her neck, she shook her head, "I mean normal food."

Tsukune's stomach attested to the want, and loudly rumbled. Ruby giggled daintily, covering her mouth. "I'll take that as a yes."

She turned and made her way to the door, knocking loudly. A moment later, and an unnoticed grate slid open, allowing a set of eyes to peer in.

"Fetch Tsukune and I something to eat and drink would you? I'd hate for him to get too...impatient." Ruby spoke calmly, carefully. Her tone left nothing of her thoughts, and even Tsukune was stunned at how she made him out to be...well, a monster.

The eyes widened slightly in response before the quiet, "Sure." slipped through, a hint of a hiss near the beginning. Once the grate had been closed again and footsteps began walking away, presumably to get something to eat for them, Ruby turned back towards Tsukune, blushing prettily.

"Sorry about that. I figured they might not, if you didn't seem dangerous. The police are getting lazier and lazier these days." She tilted her head slightly, the ends of her eyes upturned.

Tsukune shook his head slowly. "I don't think it's a good idea they think I'm some kind of psycho Ruby..."

She waved her hands, a pish-posh kind of motion. "Everyone's psychotic here. It'll work in your favor anyways, trust me."

Just then, Tsukune remembered the ring from when he woke up, and pulled it from his pocket, showing it to Ruby. "Is this yours?"

Ruby glanced at the ring, "It was. I gave it to you. It's got a nice little charm on it."

Tsukune examined the ring closely, noting that the inner circle had runes etched into what looked like vines, an ornate but precise adjustment. Most likely done with magic.

"Why'd you give it to me?" He asked, head tilted ever so slightly.

Ruby sighed, "You wouldn't let go of me when you passed out. The ring has my magical signature on it, and produces warmth, so it worked on your subconscious mind. It'll run out eventually, as it's only temporary, but I use it to deal with the cold underground corridors."

Tsukune nodded slowly, holding the ring as the warmth slowly pulsed over him. "So what am I supposed to do down here?" His words were carefully chosen, as if he were metaphorically walking on ice. The weak voice was much too quiet.

Ruby ran a hand through her dark hair before responding. "You shouldn't be staying down here too long. He's already contacted your dark lord, to discuss arrangements for your...return."

"What do you mean?"

Ruby looked at him, now with her head tilted, curious. "You know you broke some rules Tsukune. You're not allowed here, without the express permission of the exorcist. That's just how it is, for S-classed youkai. It maintains control."

"I went to school here...I have friends here...I was invited by the bus driver! What do you mean 'broke some rules'?" Tsukune's face was tightened, gaunt, and for a brief second Ruby was reminded of the extremely powerful ghoul that resided in him.

"There's no reason to get angry Tsukune. It's going to be alright. Master is probably only going through with this for formality's sake."

"Then why are there guards at the door; why am I down here behind a barred door, in a basement?"

"You reacted violently, and severely hurt someone trying to restrain you."

Tsukune's face registered his shock, he knew of his actions, he had felt his body respond after all, but to know that it had been severe was a totally different matter. "How bad?"

Ruby paused before speaking, watching as Tsukune's throat bobbed, a nervous swallow. "A few broken bones. It was taken care of, but that doesn't mean that it's easily forgotten." His expression continued to lower, a sure fire indication that he was going back to his seemingly forgotten depression.

"Alright." His voice came out subdued, as if he were elsewhere in his mind.

The silence that crept in was deafening, but deterred by knocking at the thick door. Tsukune walked to it, watching as the grate opened again, and a human face quickly morphed reptilian before his eyes. Startled at who was answering the door most likely, the guard stuttered out a, "H-h-he-re's your food." and shoved a tray through the opening. Tsukune caught it luckily, before it could crash down onto the ground, but the grate was shut again before he could respond. Sighing, he turned and walked back to Ruby.

The two of them sat together, legs crossed on the floor, carefully opening the small warm packages. Tsukune kept his head bowed, "I don't like this."

Ruby's eyebrow rose, "What's wrong with it?"

"I don't like everyone scared of me."

Ruby 'ah-ed' and said, "I thought you were talking about the food."

Tsukune glanced downwards and responded, "No. It smells good.";with a quick prayer, he began to eat.

"Don't worry about them Tsukune. They just don't know you."

He didn't respond, opting to finish his meal first. Not long after, Ruby stood, walking to the door.

"My master needs me. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Tsukune stood, before sitting back down on his temporary bed. "How do you know?"

When she opened the door, and stood in the doorway to respond, Tsukune felt a sort of shift inside, a sudden urge taking hold. His leg's muscles twitched, an on edge feeling growing. His hands clenched into the sheets of the bed, and he felt another urge. His body felt like every coil and bit of power was wound up, on the edge, and all it would take was the slightest stimulus, and he would burst. He wracked his mind, determined to understand his body, before he reacted.

"There's a spell that he uses. Notifies...me... Tsukune?" Her voice came out as a mumble, and he literally _felt_ her body take a new shuddering breath, without even looking in her direction. Vaguely, he felt his youki expand outwards, through her, crawling along the walls of the building to feel the hundreds of students surround himself. Then, it was gone.

"Why'd you do that?" she asked

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...I couldn't control myself." he looked at his hands forlornly, remembering the adrenaline rush that always accompanied the release of youki.

He still sat, hands tightened in the sheets, and Ruby said "It won't be too long and I'll be back. Just wait here, and we'll see what we can do. Maybe your lock is weakening because of..." Ruby just kind of gestured apologetically, before nodding, and flourish of her long skirt, disappeared through the door, which was quickly locked and barred behind her.

"Now what am I supposed to do?" Tsukune mumbled to himself. The door was locked down, he'd already eaten, and a shower was seriously in order. That thought lead to another look around the room, and sure enough, there was another door he hadn't paid attention to.

The bathroom was small, but had the essentials, a mirror, a toilet, and a small shower. Undressing quickly, he stood in front of the small mirror, completely naked. The mirror only revealed his upper body, adorned with the large 'x' shaped scar. His dark skin was solid, hardly any different under his shirt than on his arms, and the muscle hidden on his body briefly glared back into the mirror when he clenched his body.

_Was I not good enough?_

Unwilling to continue down those thoughts, _again_, Tsukune cut on the water to the shower, and looked for a towel. A few cabinets were opened, containing random assortments of shampoos, and conditioners. One drawer, probably prepared specifically for him, had a few bags of herbs wrapped neatly. Tsukune chuckled at how uninformed the headmaster must have been, before continuing his search. Finally finding the washrags and towels, Tsukune grabbed one of each, turning back to the hot water. Carefully subduing any remnant youki, sure to bury the powerful sensation deep in his body, and in the lock, Tsukune stuck an arm into the water. A few seconds passed, and with a nod, Tsukune stepped into the shower, under the hot water.

It smoothly flowed down his body, washing away his worries, if for a moment. The warm water lulled his aching bones, from the uncomfortable bed; it washed away any trails of tears on his face. After cleaning himself, he decided to relax, and sat back, leaning against the wall of the shower, letting the water flow down his body, his face covered in his wet hair. Ethereal, quiet, tranquil, a few words traveling through his mind. Tsukune wasn't sure how long he sat in the shower, feeling the ever warm water continuing to fall.

An undetermined amount of time later, Tsukune coughed. It was quick and unexpected, and for a second in his haze, Tsukune wondered if it even had happened. Then, it came again. A building cough, Tsukune knew it was only just the beginning and brought his hand to cover his mouth, the burning from before back in his chest. An instant later, Tsukune knew something was gravely wrong. He felt the youki under control in his body begin to expand outwards, getting dangerously close to reaching the outer parts of his body.

Desperately, he flung himself into the shower curtain, trying to roll his way through it onto the ground out of the water. The plastic curtain clung to his body, wrapping Tsukune up, making his impact hard, and uncontrolled. His head slammed into the ground, stars flashed in front of his eyes, a bright blue light.

The water still ran and though he was out of the shower, the water remaining on his wet body was beginning to spark up from the miniscule youki escaping. Trying to scramble free of his water soaked prison, Tsukune wiggled and pushed his arms outward, his normal strength deterred by the hit to the head.

Finally, too much youki had made it to the surface, and his body lit up like a flashlight. Suddenly filled again with his monstrous strength, Tsukune broke through the plastic like paper, stressing every muscle in his body against the shock to move into a fetal position. Blood was still being coughed up, and with every electric shock induced spasm, more dotted the area. Through the hacking cough, Tsukune managed to reach up, stretching towards the counter. However, instead of the counter, his hands only met the fabric of his pants, and they quickly slipped off with him. In a sort of unattached observation, Tsukune watched as the ring Ruby had given him slipped from the pocket, falling down into the puddle of blood. For a while, Tsukune lay there, unable to catch his breath. Once he could breath again, he reached out, grasping the bloody ring. It shined for a brief moment, before his world spun, everything alight in gold and white. When the flashes cleared, he found himself somewhere else, decidedly darker, and muskier.

Breathing heavily, Tsukune lay bare as when born, peering at his surroundings. Books lay about, piled high, randomly, and just breathing slightly hurt with the amount of dust kicked up from his...appearance. The area of floor surrounding himself had dust blown back, revealing glowing runes disappearing, their purpose fulfilled. Tired but determined, Tsukune stood using the large desk nearby as a sort of crutch.

_This place looks like a library...how did I get here?_

Suddenly feeling a sort of draft, and shiver, he looked for an exit to the room. Then, remembering the ring, he looked down towards his hand, watching as the glowing vines slowly dimmed and returned to normal, a clue as to what brought him to...wherever he was.

Curious, he walked around the desk, looking at some of the books that lay open, full of random information. One caught his attention, a book with an imprint of a rosary, and later Tsukune would wonder what he had been thinking when he opened it. It slowly slid open, and in neat, flowing handwriting, on the first page it read, "The Diary of Janos Vitez".


	6. Ch 6 Janoz Vitez

_**Hello everyone. I'm back with another chapter, and after a few technical difficulties...the next chapter is finished. As a point of interest, reviews are appreciated; as are constructive criticism, and honest questions. I try to throw things in the reader's face, but sometimes it fails. If you'd like to, a bit of research on your own part can be conducted about this chapter. The historical events involved are a series of interconnected webs that if you're careful, you'll find are actually realistic. If you have the time, look of Vlad the Impaler, his closer family, especially his sons. Then look up Janos Vitez. Use the information given to figure out what has happened. Good luck, and may your read be as enlightening as the writing was for me.

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Thicker Than Mud Ch 6

Janos Vitez

The heavy book in his hands whispered softly to him, a story unfolding in his ears. However, it was interrupted in it's beginning by a sudden knocking on the door. Uncharacteristicly frozen, Tsukune held his breath. The unknown male youkai, he knew it was a male youkai because of the miniscule amount of testosterone and youki that inhabited it's body, waited before turning and walking away. As it's footsteps faded into the distance, Tsukune breathed an unguarded sigh of relief.

Turning back to the forgotten book, Tsukune grazed his thumb along the surface. Remembering his state of dress, or lack thereof, he began to search the room for something to wear. After sitting down again, a few drawers revealed nothing, except that who ever's desk it was had an unhealthy fascination with pens. Pulling open the last drawer, it only revealed the same as the rest, different variations of pens, and a few other office supplies.

Frustrated, Tsukune let out a grunt, before dropping his head onto the desk. The sound reverberated through the room before another thump accompanied it. Tsukune looked up and around.

_What was that?_

Sitting up fully, Tsukune scrutinized the desk, noticing a new compartment that had previously gone unnoticed. After a few attempts at trying to wedge it open, with no success, Tsukune jerked harshly on the crevice. It gave way, and a drawer slid smoothly out. A crimson garment of some kind lay within. Carefully pulling it out, Tsukune unfolded it, recognizing it as some form of pants. They were dark, mostly, with little chains crisscrossing at places, and there was a sash of some kind that wrapped around the top like a belt, with a few precarious crosses hanging from it.

The fabric was light, and soft at touch. Just by holding it, Tsukune knew that it had to be extremely expensive. He was reminded of the one time he had gotten to try on a pair of silk slacks when he was thirteen. They had fit perfect, but even then, his mother didn't have the money to waste.

Getting back to the situation at hand Tsukune held the pants up to his body. They seemed a bit big, but it'd at least cover the necessities. Making a mental prayer and apologizing to whoever owned them, he pulled them on.

Once he had tied the sash around his waist, Tsukune reevaluated himself. They fit snugly, light, and slightly breezy if he had to mention it.

_Seems I'm not as small as I thought._

When Tsukune turned from side to side, the crosses didn't make a noise, and only a faint 'tink' could be heard by his vampiricly enhanced ears.

"Interesting..." he muttered to himself.

He was startled out of his reverie by the hidden runes that had most likely brought him there flaring to life again. Even without the youki in him acting as a sensor, he felt the large amount of energy they produced. With a flash, bright enough that he'd blink, everything died down to the dreary darkness it was before he had came.

Now, standing in the spot he had once lain, a white robed figure stood. His face was shrouded by the darkness of his cowl, and fierce, battle thirsty eyes glared out from underneath. Then, something registered in them, slowly turning them into eyes that Tsukune was all too familiar with.

"What are you doing in my study, Tsukune?" came the disembodied voice of the headmaster of the school, the exorcist of youkai, and resident Dark Lord.

"I don't know." Tsukune answered honestly. He tried to continue, but the exorcist interrupted.

"And wearing my clothes?" There was a tinge of annoyance in his voice, and Tsukune could see the smirk on the only visible piece of the exorcist's face.

"I didn't have anything else, I don't even know how I got here really. I'm sorry. I wasn't dressed when I was brought here." Tsukune bowed and kept his eyes fixated on the ground throughout his sentence.

The exorcist walked around the desk, and unbidden Tsukune rose from the seat and walked to stand in front of it. The exorcist paused to carefully slide back in the drawer the pants had came from, and after opening all the others to satisfy himself, turned his attention back to Tsukune. The artificial vampire stood by silently, eyes everywhere but the desk.

"How did you find that drawer anyways?" the exorcist asked.

Tsukune rubbed a hand against the back of his neck slightly before responding. "I was searching the desk with no luck and when I bumped it, the drawer sort of, came open..."

The exorcist continued to stare at him for a second before nodding his head, "I would appreciate it if you never mention what the contents of my desk were, and would implore you to never search an area that you know nothing about. It could lead to grave consequences..." His voice was grating and slow, measured as he spoke. "I'll call for Ruby. I assume she had something to do with you getting in here. After all, only she and myself are keyed to give permission for entrance...though, judging by the amount of time you've sat here, I'd say you got in while she was still with me...which leaves the question...How?" His eyes narrowed dangerously at Tsukune, and glowed brighter.

Before Tsukune could try to answer the eyes dimmed and narrowed, looking down towards his side. "What's in your pocket?"

Tsukune gulped, and slowly reached down, pulling the small ring Ruby had gave him. He was almost sure it had brought him to the study, how was beyond him, but he was sure. The exorcist leaned forward carefully inspecting the ring in his outstretched hand. Then ushering Tsukune's closer with a hand, grabbed Tsukune's wrist. After cutting on the light of a lamp nearby, that Tsukune had mistaken for some kind of ornamental statue, he pulled Tsukune's hand under the light of it. Careful to barely touch the ring, he took a closer look. Then he let go, sitting back in his chair, but leaving the lamp on.

Tsukune closed his fist, protective of the warmth it brought. The headmaster chuckled loudly, "Clever girl..."

"What do you mean?" Tsukune asked.

The chairman nodded his head towards Tsukune clenched fist. "That contains her magical signature and is keyed to teleport into my study. Very clever. You see, had anyone else tried, even you, at best the wards would have been detrimental to their health. Only she has access, and so, she found a way to bypass it."

Tsukune shivered slightly at would would be 'detrimental to one's health' in the chairman's eyes. Running a school full of youkai tended to lower the bar far too much in Tsukune opinion on what was 'detrimental'. Trying to shake the sinking feeling that the headmaster of the school would feel no loss at his gruesome death, after all, he had been doomed to burn once, with no effort by the chairman to stop it, Tsukune turned to leave.

The voice of the only dark lord he knew interrupted his thoughts, "Where do you think you're off to Tsukune?" Tsukune turned to answer and saw the headmaster of the school toss an object at him. Catching it before it could hit slam into his face, Tsukune identified it as a small cross.

"What's this fo-" anything else he was going to say was cut off as the runes before lit up.

"You and I are so alike Tsukune...so willing, curious." The exorcist chuckled before shifting through the piles of now rearranged books on his desk. "Now where did that book go?"

With a flash, Tsukune was stumbling to fall back onto the floor of his previous prison. The door was still locked, grate shut, and nothing had changed.

_I'm not too sure this was the smartest thing I could have done...but..._

Tsukune grit his teeth, eyes screwed shut as tears begged to spill forth, _I have nowhere else. Diana's family is far too ingrained in everything. They own my dad's company, I work for them, hell, I'm sure they even own my bank._

Suddenly, Tsukune remembered the book. The diary that lay in his pocket had been forgotten temporarily, lost in his confusion during his talk with the chairman. Pulling the small book from the seemingly huge pockets, he ran his thumb over the cover again. _Well, what do I have better to do. _And so, for the first time in quite a while, Tsukune began to read.

Time passed slowly.

The book wove a dark tale. Janos Vitez began life as many a man had, young and foolish. However, upon recovering from a childhood mistake, that wasn't explained, he decided to pursue life as part of the church system. Becoming a priest wasn't particularly hard, he detailed, as it had all came naturally to him. Learning the prayers had been easy with near perfect memory, and evidently he had adjusted to life quickly. That changed though. His first rude awakening was when a dark young man had ventured into the church of God on that night. The day had gone perfect, and he was finishing touching up the floors of the church when the doors were loudly knocked upon. Baring in mind that many a drunk would try to wander into the church late, he prepared himself for the encounter.

Opening the doors softly, rosary in hand, he began, "I'm sorry...", but was interrupted.

"Can I not pray to God?" The voice was gravelly, as hoarse as many a victim of disease was before they died, and for a moment Janos considered turning him away upon those grounds. The people of the church would likely never know, and if they did, it would hardly matter; something stopped him though, and responded opposite of his thoughts.

"Please be more prudent when you next pray, at these hours, we generally rest, and maintain the house of God." As he finished he opened the door wider, giving plenty of room for the man to step inside. When he did, Janos got his first look at the late night visitor. Though his voice was gravelly, his features were certainly not. Long perfectly straight black hair hung out from underneath the hood before it was thrown back to reveal a pearly white smile, and deep gray eyes. The clothes on the man were of noble design, deep colored, and expensively embroidered.

"I apologize for coming so late. I have just arrived, and felt the need arise." His head tilted forward in a curt bow, as even royalty found some trouble with it at times.

Janos sighed tiredly but nodded his head, "I understand your precautions. To arrive in unknown territory can cause feeling of anxiety. Praying often alleviates such fears. You are welcome to spend as much time as you need, as long as you keep in mind that I must sleep some."

The black haired noble only nodded his head, smiling a bit. "I will try not to burden you any more than I must."

Janos continued upon his nightly chores, and was not bothered again by the man except for him to say he was leaving. The trend later continued. In the dark of nightfall, the man would visit, softly treading, and disarmingly polite. After a year, the two of them had developed a pseudo friendship, and spoke more commonly, even outside the church at times. Janos was frowned upon by some of the lowers, but with his rising power and influence, none would cross him regarding his choices. It wasn't long before he was a bishop, high in power and influence, called upon by many of the surrounding nobles.

Finally, Janos' perfect life began to crack when he decided on a perfectly normal day to take a calming walk down 'the path'. His frustration with the people of his church had reached an all time high; they complained of their lives, gifted though they were, spoke against belief, and worst, questioned whether the church was worth the ground upon which it lay. This naturally lead to a need for a bit of peace, and only one place would give him quiet. Said path was a trail that lead through the forest, looping about up through the hills and down past streams before winding back to civilization. Not many went down it anymore, as it was out of the way, and often enough, people went missing. Janos though, had tried retreating to his quarters, had tried retreating to his tranquil hall of prayers, and neither had given him the comfort or solace he wished.

So, with a small pack on his back, he set out to get a bit of a break. The trail was easily found, and for hours he walked in it's serene glow. The sun was high, the trees tall, and together they cast shadows all about, creating a sort of hidden-from-the-world feeling. Holes of light broke through the treetops on occasion, reminding him so much of the people for which he often prayed. They did so much to block the good from showing through, but even with all of their efforts, nothing held it back completely. Janos sighed lightly, almost wishing he could stay there, walking like that forever.

The bushes shook near him, and startled, he turned to see what had caused it. Nothing moved for a moment, before suddenly a deer practically charged him down. Before it even reached him though, it collapsed. Confused, the bishop took cautious steps forward and around the beast. It breathed heavily, occasionally shuddering. Janos was unsure of how to react really, as he had personally never seen such an animal up close. When he did finally notice the cause of the animals piteous attempts at movement, he could not stop the horrified gasp from escaping.

In the side of the great buck's neck, was perhaps one of the most gruesome gashes he had ever seen. Blood poured slowly from it now, and as the animal grew more still, he knew there was nothing he could do. Before he could move away and let the animal die in piece though, a new voice, a familiar voice broke into his thoughts, "Lovely isn't it? The way life ceases to exist so easily? How the flames of such an animal are easily dusted to ash."

Janos turned to look upon what many had taken to calling 'the mysterious noble'. The man with whom he had many a meeting, was casually walking toward him, wiping his bloody face as he did so.

Janos was too stunned to even move as the man walked past, carelessly twisting the animal's head until a soft crack could be heard. The noise only served to drive the point home more, and Janos knew that he was in the presence of what had caused the gash. When the stranger wiped blood off of his face, it had at first made Janos confused, but now, comparing the gash and horrendous amount of blood, only one conclusion was made.

"Va-va-vampire!" was the only stuttered word he could get out. Vampires weren't supposed to be real. Witches were burned at the stake, and anything else supernatural was killed off as far as he knew. It was the will of God that all that stood in the way be extinguished.

The charming dark haired man turned, "Yes, I am. I am more than you will ever be, infinitely so. Do you understand?"

Janos only shook in his shoes, and began to pray. "Dear Father,"

"Your father will not save you here!" and then Janos was flying. With a sudden awareness, he was shocked back to understanding as his head came in contact with the dirt. A fit of strength that shouldn't have been possible had launched him 20 paces across the clearing. Before he lost consciousness, all he saw was the man that he thought he understood walking closer.

When Janos next awoke, he wondered if it had all been a strange dream. He was back in his bed, and dressed for sleep. The sudden throbbing pain in his abdomen and head confirmed his fears though. The voice that spoke up deceptively close to his ear only furthered his instinct to move.

"I was beginning to worry that the little tap I'd given you would put you out permanently."

Janos jumped and turned to find the...vampire sitting in a chair at his bedside.

"I never told you my name, and for that I apologize. Allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Radu, and it is very nice to truly meet you Janos."

Janos continued to write in the diary for many years, trying to understand what his new captor was. Janos was not stupid, having grown up near many an influential figure, and he knew, deep inside, that if he were to discuss what he had learned of Radu, he would not breath another breath. Radu was a silver tongued monster, and made no move to dissuade that opinion when in the presence of only Janos.

Delving deep into the archives of the church, using his new vast power as an archbishop, Janos searched for ways to save himself from the beast that he regular shared his personal space with. Some hidden documents shed light, supposed weaknesses, but Radu himself had on many occasion showed that all of the false weaknesses vampires were believed to have, were just that, incorrect.

Eventually Janos noted that Radu avoided water that Radu himself hadn't had time to tamper with. He always seemed to carry a small bag of herbs, too. This lead Janos to believe that on some level water was detrimental to the vampire. However, to test the theory would give away the secret that he had only begun to suspect.

Still determined to have a back up, he began to put faith in older beliefs, borderline witchcraft that he had been informed of. If there was one thing Janos had learned, it was that the power of God was not going to save him from this demon; and when it came down to it, Janos was in no way inclined to turn away avenues of help.

That had led to the first day Janos had successfully performed a form of magic. Though it was small, a small symbol that glowed with ambient power. With new found hope, Janos threw himself into his studies. Under the guise of studying astronomy and humanism, he learned the deepest of supposed witchcraft. After a few close encounters, where he was nearly found out by the church, he decided it would be wise if he at least held up the guise with some actual knowledge.

Years passed. Janos was well known for his abilities as an astronomer and humanist among many other titles. His level of diplomacy had soared admittedly after dealing with Radu. Radu had never confirmed where he was born or what family line he came from, but after some time, Radu had slipped up a bit. He only once mentioned that he had been named after his uncle, a man whom his father had disliked for being a traitor. In his moment of displeasure, Radu had stated that his elder brother had been named the same as his father, and their father's father, and so forth, leaving him shamed, as small, insignificant in comparison.

On a cold winter in the mid 14th century, Janos finally got his break. A runic circle had been mentioned in a book by the Pagan druids, a group of spiritual people rumored to still hide among the crowds. The runic circle mentioned was said to be able to contain any presence with demonic power. The runes were able to draw out the power of the demon, and use them to amplify it's cage.

Surprisingly, it hadn't been hard to find the correct runes with the church's vast influence and power; being an almost sovereign nation, the church allowed him to travel just about anyway free of issue. Tracking down the people he needed wasn't as easy as he had hoped, but with a thinly veiled threat, he finally had the closest thing to a druid sitting before him one night in a quiet inn outside the edges of town. It seemed the Ottoman empire had a group in the ruling class that regularly dealt with them.

The spiritual man was coaxed slowly to impart the information, alcohol here, money there, and threat everywhere else, never mind the fact that any crimes the church would hold against the man could also be held against Janos.

When Janos finally mentioned the word 'vampire' to the man, he fell deathly silent. He rarely spoke the rest of the night, and after many near silent nights, they finally overcame the core issue of what to do.

Janos wrote that the druid had said as simply as possible one night, "To take such power from a being... to take that much requires another to receive." And with their plans in mind, they met one final time.

In a clearing, just off the road near the edge of town, they discussed their plans. Radu, Janos later revealed, had been waiting. With less than a noise, he was there sitting between them, like he had materialized from nothing. The wind blew lightly, picking up in speed, as ominous a threat as ever.

"And what vampire would you two be talking about? Certainly you do not plan to kill me?" His voice was as serene as ever, and though there was a thinly veiled threat behind it, Janos was still curious as to how the man made almost anything sound attractive.

The druid for his part though practically fell apart. "Nno-No, never. We were just-" He rambled incessantly on and on about how he hadn't wanted to get involved, how he was too young to die. Finally Radu silenced him by merely holding up a hand, as if stopping some invisible flood.

"I know what you were planning. I've overstayed my welcome. I should have just killed you to begin with Janos." and with that, he turned to look one last time into the eyes of the archbishop.

"Ligare!" Janos roared. Instantly lights flared up all over the small clearing, symbols preciously carved into the area began to glow, and a dome of near clear blue appeared around Radu. The vampire laughed at the pitiful effort to contain him, before charging into the barrier. Surprising, he rebounded off, and received a serious burn for trying. Roaring louder, his energy began to coat the area, swelling and pushing against the barrier, but it was for nothing. The barrier only grew stronger, and began to shrink. The space around Radu was closing in tight, quickly, and before long he was screaming in agony, gasping hoarsely as blood flaked across the near invisible shield.

The walls converged on his body, slowly allowing his hands to pass through, now imperfect, blemishes in the once perfect tools of death viewable. Then his arms and hands were passed through as the sphere closed in towards the core of his body. He began coughing up more blood. With one final anguished scream, the barrier passed through Radu's head and stomach, moving forward to appear outside his body. Radu's once monstrous visage disappeared, elongated canines retracting, blood red eyes melding to dark brown, and before them stood a perfectly flawed human.

The malevolent energies boiled inside their blue container, stretching and strangely enough pushing outwards against the barrier on their own. Quickly, the druid stood up. "We must hurry. If we do not get them into another body, they may react violently." He moved forward chanting, carving runes out in the air with as fluidity as he could before making a pushing motion towards the sphere and consequently Janos.

Before Janos could object, as the plan had been to store them in the druid, they rushed forward and clashed with his body. The blue power dissipated and the red was already furiously burning his body to enter it before he could even get out a word.

Agony erupted like molten lava in his veins, indescribably slow and vicious with each tormented inch it spread. Vaguely he heard the druid apologize before turning and leaving through the brush. Finally he fell.

The pain ebbed away just as slowly as it came, and when Janos was finally able to stand, the world seemed more clear, his mind sharp, and for once, his strained body didn't protest to awaking. The clearing was as he'd left it, though light had begun to show, and Radu lay still on the other side of the clearing. Feeling suddenly more confident, he took measured steps to stand in front of Radu. His eyes stared blankly ahead, as if looking off into the distance.

"Here to finish the job?" came his hoarse voice, though now, it lacked the definite edge that made it so appealing before.

Janos shook his head. "I'm not here to kill you Radu, though you deserve it for the crimes you've committed. You'll do a good enough job of that on your own. You are now, in every sense of the word human, if the ritual was done correctly; judging by how...energized I feel, I'd say it was. See, though you were faster, stronger, and physically better, I planned...planned for years. I watched as you destroyed families, memories, homes, and even innocent children, yet could do nothing. Finally, you'll get what you've given all of them. Death."

"Who's the high and mighty priest now? You wonder what your 'God' will do now that you've decided I should die? I wonder what your 'God' will do now that you can't die of old age! You think he'll welcome you with open arms when someone finally finishes what I started? No! You're now similar to what I was, but worse off. I may have been vampire, but at least I was born that way. To steal such a curse out of greed. Bah, your time will come too, and I'll be waiting in the next life just for you."

Janos sighed sadly, shaking his head. "I'd be lying if I said I had too much faith in God right now. Everything I was taught to believe has been turned back, everything I had distinguished is now a blur. I may have doomed myself, but I've saved others' lives and my own for the moment. That will have to do."

"You're a fool, and always will be if you think by doing this you've saved any significant amounts of lives." Radu added spitefully.

"Then I am a fool, and I will hear no more of your rambling. Be gone, I don't expect you to live long either way. The loss of the energy will kill you slowly." Janos turned and began to walk away.

That was the last Janos saw of Radu, but he made sure to keep an eye out and ears to the ground in case. His life played out on it's own then. With the power came a confidence boost, and with that, strength to get farther in the world. He eventually became a trusted adviser of many, a father figure to students, and a diplomat of unprecedented value. The only issue was, he hadn't aged. In the 20 years after the ritual, Janos had barely aged, if at all, and it was beginning to draw attention. Determined to work around it, he began to dabble with the new power's granted. Eventually he was able to weave it like thread, and even bend it to his will with the correct focus and symbols. He began to do things unmentioned in all texts he'd read, like purging sickness from the people around himself with a mere motion, causing storms in distress, and once, he even controlled the king's mind.

The only drawback he noticed, was that the people around him seemed to age faster, the more powerful the act he pulled. It seemed that no matter the change, a curse was a curse. Vampires he knew, drew upon blood. He himself, well, he drew upon the very life energies of those around him.

He did find though, that if he were to be around larger populations, the draw on the individual was less, nearly unnoticeable. With that in mind, he involved himself with masses of students, teaching as many as he could his life lessons, his ideas.

Now wanting a particular ability, he began to search for ways to blend in. The energy, now potent and like magic, was eventually manipulated to form an illusion. He was finally out from under the public eye.

When he 'passed on' years later, he had accomplished much, and thought that it would seem suspicious if he stayed alive too much longer. After gathering everything he needed, he cast one final illusion, making a copy of himself, and though it wouldn't hold up to a real scientist, it hardly mattered as no one would tamper with his body. A rune in the center made the illusion permanent, and with one final glance around his room, he broke from his old age and walked into the night.

The diary was hardly done and Tsukune was gaping like a fish. _A man actually succeeded in trapping and draining a vampire! Oh the irony!_

Tsukune was truly in awe. Having dealt with a few vampires himself, and being one, he knew the power gap between human and vampire. What made him stop though, was that the book clearly outlined how to make the runic circle, symbols and all. Anyone that had the book had a clear weakness of all vampires! It was no small wonder the exorcist kept it in his study away from everyone, but why had he been reading it? The book's one dogeared page stood out, and with sudden worry, Tsukune opened the page.

_This can't be good._

It was the page with the circle of symbols.


	7. Ch 7 Power Is Objective

**_I sat with my hands on the keyboard for five minutes here, unsure of how to "open the book" as it were. I feel almost disgraced at my sudden dropping of this hard work. Even ashamed that I never attempted to summarily finish. Winowyll was patient though, and now over a year and a half later, I've awoken from my...rest. Your patience is appreciated, and hopefully with the continuance of this, more questions will be answered._**

Thicker Than Mud

Ch. 7

Power is Objective

Tsukune tenderly took his fingertip to the ancient ink picture on the page, dragging it along the swirling lines forlornly. The only discernible shape on the page really was a circle that made up the median of the pattern. As he continued to move with the shapes he slowly realized it had been pressed before inked. Someone had taken something with a hard shape in the form of the ritual circle and pressed to the back of the page before filling the parts with ink. It left the drawing emboldened.

_What use could the Headmaster have of this ritual?_

Tsukune wracked his brain for a solid answer for an insurmountable time.

_Could this be a fail-safe for students like Moka? For personal gain? Did the Headmaster have something planned for the upcoming meeting?...What about me?_

Tsukune quickly stood and began searching the room. His hands pushed dust from the wall, his eyes scrutinized the floors, and he even cast an eye on the ceiling...nothing.

Before he could continue down that line of thought, he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Tsukune, I'm about to come in. You're dressed right?" He heard Ruby's voice drift through the crack as if she were leaning her head against the door to listen for a response.

Scrambling he closed the diary and shoved it in his pillow case. Trying to not seem suspicious he laid down and threw the covers over himself. Later he would consider himself lucky that they were still trying to keep up the image of him as a guest rather than prisoner.

"Yea, come on in. I don't seem to be able to sleep anyway." He tried desperately to make his voice sound even, though it tried to crack at his worry over the diary on top of everything else that had recently gone on.

The door creaked open and Ruby calmly walked in, waving a hand for him to lay back down as she drifted to the table with a tray of what he knew was tea not only by smell but by the obvious cups and kettle. Ruby's back was turned to him then and as she busied herself with pouring the tea into the cups he cast a casual eye over her for what seemed to be the tenth time since he arrived. Had she not aged a day at all?

Ruby turned her head and asked. "Is there any particular way you like your tea?" A sweet smell pounced on his senses, and then just as briefly disappeared. In that moment he was reminded of when Moka had tried to make him tea a few times before, and any approval of Ruby's physical assets were replaced with a sudden urge to vomit and cry. That wouldn't do at all.

"I don't really feel like tea." Tsukune replied, looking around the room tiredly.

Ruby tilted her turned head just the slightest at him before going back to her stirring and mixing. With the soft ringing of a spoon she appeared to be done. She moved to the bed and sat at the edge beside him.

"Try this. It's a good blend, I promise." She said, smile turning up the corner of her eyes.

As much as he felt sick, he couldn't deny one of his oldest friends at that moment. He accepted the glass, after sitting up, and nodded in thanks, not noticing the bit of a flush that dusted Ruby's cheeks at his bare chest.

Tsukune took a light sip of the warm tea, and almost instantly felt a little better. A deeper gulp and he felt slightly euphoric. Examining the tea with a critical eye he glanced at Ruby who was daintily drinking her own. After staring for a few seconds she made eye contact with him.

"What?" she asked covering a smile.

"Ketamine?" he asked with his own smile.

She laughed softly then, "No, just a special recipe the Headmaster recommended I try for you."

At the Headmaster comment Tsukune froze mid sip. Gulping painfully he asked, "Oh, What's in it?"

She ticked off her fingers counting out the different blends of tea leaves and various ingredients. Nothing suspicious was among them.

_I'm getting paranoid._

"The Headmaster says that you're fine to leave the room as long as I escort you. If you run Tsukune, I'll be forced to detain you, so please don't." Ruby's face seemed both serious and casual as if the idea was an everyday concept for her.

"What changed his mind suddenly?" Tsukune asked.

"I might have suggested that temporary insanity seemed more likely if you were locked down here with no idea of time too often." She smiled impishly, showing a bit of a dimple he hadn't noticed before. She continued, "I'm actually believing that more as I sit here with you. Why would you attempt to sleep at noon?"

Tsukune felt her lightly prying with the question but just waved it off, "There isn't much to do anyway, and as you said I have no idea of the time down here. What am I allowed to do anyway?"

Ruby stood setting the two empty cups down on the table before turning to him, hands lightly clasped in front of her. "I was thinking we could visit a few of the classrooms."

At that Tsukune groaned softly, "And why would that be any better than this?" He instantly knew it was better by default of fresh air and less boring circumstance, but resisted for the sake of not seeming desperate.

"The school has changed a lot recently, Tsukune. I think you'd be surprised at some of the differences." She muttered softly.

Tsukune sighed. _Anything to take my mind off of **her** I suppose._ An invisible hand grasped tight at his heart again. The pull was less than before, but his eyes blurred with moisture irregardless. _Why do I have to be so weak?_ Before he could continue into more decadent thoughts two pale fingers gently brushed away his tears. He looked up into the face of Ruby who was muttering to herself while rolling the liquid around her hands.

"I cried a lot too you know. We all did. It's not right for you to be crying now." Her violet eyes simmered slightly with foreign power as she spoke to herself and him. Then, catching herself she smiled brightly again, "But the past is the past right? You've always gotta move forward."

Tsukune nodded, just ready to get out of his "cell". He wouldn't try to debate the truth of that philosophy while he felt so weak emotionally. Standing and stretching flexed a few stiff muscles from his earlier reading out and he couldn't hold back the satisfactory groan that escaped as he popped his neck.

Ruby still maintained her hand to mouth motion smiling all the while, sending a shiver down his back as he felt he had seen someone else do that pose, before commenting. "Though I think we should get you a shirt."

Tsukune walked to the bathroom pulling out the shirt he had worn the other day. After throwing it and the matching slacks back on he folded the Headmaster's "borrowed" pants and set them on the bed. Ruby commented on them from the doorway, "Where'd you get those?"

"The Headmaster loaned them to me," he said shrugging. Ruby's lips pursed slightly.

"I've never seen him wear something like that." Tsukune shrugged before putting his shoes back on. The fact that he changed in front of her didn't even register with the recent hurt and clinical circumstances.

Ruby lead him out past his two guards who he was sure now were either lizards or snakes judging by the smell. After going up two sets of stairs and through a bolt locked doorway Tsukune saw the sun for the first time in two days. Albeit through a window across from a janitor's closet that doubled as a prison cell, Tsukune didn't care.

The air had never tasted fresher and with a deep inhale, he caught the scents of the populace. Cat girls, werewolves, lizards, snakes, and even the odd smell of fish invaded his nose. At the recognition of werewolf his nose twitched twice, zoning for a particular smell. Nothing. That brought back the night. Consequently reminding himself of Moka. "_I can't dwell"_ Was the mantra that repeated through his head for a few seconds.

Ruby concerned, reached out to touch his shoulder. "You alright?"

Tsukune flinched at the contact slightly, before shirking away. "Yea. I'm fine. Just a lot of memories here."

Ruby shook her head. "There's nowhere you can go that there won't be. You've just gotta push past it Tsukune. Trust me, I've had my own heartbreak." Her raven locks flew side to side with the movement, and seeing her expression Tsukune was abashed.

"I'm sorry things didn't work out better Ruby." the apology felt as dead as it sounded, and for a second he understood her philosophy of "nothing you can do about it" before the dread settled back in. "I wish things could be as they were back then."

"We all made our choices, and we all eventually moved on. That's life Tsukune. Considering you're timeless, you'd better get used to it."

Tsukune only shook his head.

Some things had definitely changed though. The school was twice as populated as it was not so long ago when he was here. Gaggles of girls ran to and fro, boys smiled charmingly at them, and the "nerds" of Youkai Academy seemed to huddle and disperse and random intervals talking about this and that that Tsukune could hardly understand.

A few girls giggled as he walked by, following Ruby closely like a child at his mother's skirt. The noise hurt him a little and when he glanced at them over his shoulder, one blew a kiss. Ruby just rolled her eyes, "Some things never change."

When they arrived at his assumed destination Ruby had him grab a chair at a bench near the drink machine that Moka had originally used most often to get tomato juice. That made his gut twinge, but he ignored it sure that there was some purpose Ruby would rub salt in the wound.

"Do you know why I brought you here Tsukune?" She asked then, sitting close enough that her thighs just slightly touched his.

Looking around he asked, "You didn't get enough tea?"

Her hand reached across then and her nails dug into the slacks on his thighs. "Just because you're hurt does not mean I will allow you to be sarcastic with me. I brought you here so you could see the next generation."

"And what good does that do me? How does me sitting here watching these kids help me?" He asked defensively.

"Life...just...goes on Tsukune. I can see you're hurting. I can see you're stressed. I can see you're tired. You're worn down and broken. I get that. But it's doing you no good. Nothing like the Tsukune I used to know." Her face at that moment was more serious than any he'd ever seen her with. Her thin eyebrows were bunched together and a cold hallowed look appeared on her face.

His own eyebrows drew together in thought, "I'm not sure I'm the same Tsukune either Ruby."

She smiled suddenly, "I feel like that's the first bit of honest expression I've heard from you today." Her nails had long since released their death grip in his thigh but her hand still lingered, and her legs were crossed leading to one now forcibly pressed to his.

He looked at the rest of the seven foot bench and then back to her before asking, "You don't have to sit this close to me you know?"

"I know." Somehow his chest felt lighter.

His eyes drifted of their own volition to her skirt. The black lace around the edges did have a certain enticement to it and as she had sat, she'd pulled it up to where it lay at her knees, allowing him a only half wanted view of panty-hose clad legs. The arousal that flashed through him stabbed him internally and left him elated. His body was not as eternally exclusive as he'd originally hoped. Though now, that hardly mattered, as his emotions felt wounded.

Shaking his head from those thoughts he cast his eyes up towards her face. Mischievous pink-violet eyes met his own and the sort of impish grin he'd begun to get used to crept back up on her face, but she said nothing. Her hand firmly squeezed his thigh twice before she stood allowing the skirt to stretch out fully again.

She turned and held out a hand to him. The gesture seemed odd considering he was sitting and certainly didn't need help. With only slight pause he reached out and grasped it. Ruby pulled him to his feet and gave him a hug that under other less comforting based circumstances would have been considered intimate. Pulling away she smiled again and began to lead him back towards the direction they had come.

The lizard/snake guards were sitting down outside the door waiting for him when he got there, and when they saw that he didn't seem to be breaking student's bones as a casual hobby, relaxed if only slightly. When Ruby cleared her throat loudly, they snapped back to attention, arms crossed at the door's two sides.

After Tsukune and Ruby entered his "suite" the door was quickly shut and barred from the other side. _Not that it would do any good without the Headmaster's magic to support it._

"You want me to get those washed? You'll begin to smell something awful if you keep reusing clothes." Ruby asked.

"I'd like that, but I don't have anything else to wear..." Tsukune trailed off. He entertained the thought of putting back on his "borrowed" pants, but decided they were a little too fancy to be wearing constantly.

"That's fine. You just go take a shower, and I'll have them in the wash by the time you get out at least. I'll have a robe sent down to you until they're done." She made shooing motions with her hands, pushing him towards the bathroom.

Walking inside and shutting the door, Tsukune quickly stripped down, checking that there was another towel and after wrapping that one around his waist and tying it securely in place, he opened the door. Ruby made an obvious show of covering her eyes and pretending to peek as she took his clothes from him. Her antics had worked to cheer him up a little more.

She turned away and walked to the door knocking loudly. The grate opened and after confirmation from Ruby the door did. She stood in the doorway about to walk away when Tsukune remembered something suddenly.

"Hey Ruby?" he called from the open bathroom door still clad in only a white towel.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever heard of a Janos Vitez?"

Ruby's eyes narrowed so slightly his vampiric eye sight almost didn't notice, almost being key. "What about Vitez?"

Tsukune's expression grew perplexed at her sudden defensiveness. "A catholic friend of mine back at the company mentioned some of the great things he did...I was wondering if he was a magic user like you or Yukari. He did a lot of amazing things evidently."

Ruby's expression remained passive for a few seconds before she spoke. "Janos Vitez was one of the strongest youkai to ever live."

Tsukune's expression must have been of surprise. "How did he die?"

Ruby shook her head side to side, "He killed himself after growing tired of living."

Tsukune understood.

"Are you gonna stand there and let these guards ogle you all day Tsukune?" She asked, tapping her foot and hooking her thumb at the thugs who were trying to look straight ahead and not at Tsukune.

Tsukune laughed, and shook his head before turning, dropping his towel and closing the bathroom door. What he didn't pay attention to was the fact of the order of his actions. Nor did he notice Ruby bite her lip and groan before walking away stiffly. The guards just shrugged, and relocked the doors.

Tsukune now alone under the scalding shower water began to recount the day in his head, taking into thought the diary findings and information from Ruby. How long had Janos lived before he killed himself? Why had he killed himself really? What about that vampire made him so strong?

_Doesn't matter now I suppose, but why does the Headmaster seem to be reading this?_

Tsukune continued to stand in the shower letting the water roll down his body for a while taking a sort of masochistic pleasure in the pain. _A thought worthy of Ruby._

Realizing where his thoughts were roaming, Tsukune clenched his fists against the wall. _I will not be like Moka._ Just the mental thought of her name made him clench his teeth. _I will not be petty and childish._ His hand banged against the tile wall a little hard then, causing spiderweb cracks to form. **_I will not-_**his reverie was startled then when youki raced up his right arm to the point of contact with the wall. A bolt of corresponding electricity hit then. The pain was intense but Tsukune held still. A second after the energy died down, the electricity stopped.

_That's...interesting._

Tsukune pulled from the well of vampiric strength in his body and willed it to the surface just under his very...human skin. Lightning began to arc from piece to piece, stinging but not damaging him wholesomely. _Seems I've managed to elude one of vampires' greatest weaknesses._

Just to be sure, he pushed a strong amount of youki, as if he were to punch someone into just his pointer finger. The resounding bolt paralyzed his arm and made him cry out in pain. The gasp that burst from his mouth splattered bits of blood against the wall which were washed away just as fast. That seemed to break the dam though. A second later and he coughed again, more blood. Then again. Again. And soon he was wheezing harshly barely getting the oxygen to breath from his fit, and blood was becoming more copious. A pink hue dotted the shower floor, and his lungs burned like fire. The youki that lay dormant in his body moved then as if of it's own volition towards the surface.

Tsukune knew what was to come. First ions began to raise the very roots of his hair all over his body, a sort of static that went perfect with the slow changing of his hair color to his vampiric state. The light show had begun it seemed.

Lightning danced from limb to limb, burning him, causing spasmodic seizures. His lungs collapsed, his windpipe constricted, and before he hit the floor and curled in the fetal position, he literally felt his heart stop. There, on the floor, Tsukune lay panicked at the absence of his internal time-clock of life. As darkness began to cloud his vision he felt two arms heft him back under the water, where the electricity continued it's deadly dance. A blast to the chest and his heart began to beat again. Another and his lungs took air. Then, it just seemed to stop. The pain didn't.

Bleary eyes looked upwards to see who had attempted to kill or save him. Glowing orbs of white light met his own from under the exorcist's cowl. "Headmaster?"

The esteemed headmaster just acquiesced his head in a sort of nod before throwing the discarded towel over Tsukune's now very visible unmentionables. Water continued to beat down on the now covered Tsukune and Tsukune couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong with me?"

The Exorcist just sat down on the closed toilet nearby and leaned back in apparent thought before speaking. "Nothing, now."

Tsukune did not understand. "What do you mean?"

Eyes of someone older than a lifetime looked at Tsukune from under the cowl. "Your body was acclimating to a new state of being. Shedding the last of the human blood in your body. I imagine that though you were practically a vampire in every way, you yearned for some part of you to stay as you were to connect yourself to your past. The ghoul however seems to have given up on this sentiment."

"What makes you think that?" Tsukune's breathing had slowed.

"I had a friend a long time ago. A close friend who went through something very similar. To change from one being to another is a very...delicate...process. Even more so when unrestrained. **That** is why I gave you the holy lock originally." The youngest Dark Lord spoke somberly, reliving a memory of some past.

"Will this happen again?" Tsukune asked still crumpled up in the shower afraid to move.

"Most likely," was the response, but then the Headmaster continued, "But I've done my part. And hopefully you'll keep from powering all the runes in my building from now on. The guards panicked and assumed you were going to go on a killing spree. Pft. Teenagers."

The Exorcist opened the bathroom door and began to leave, but then stopped to say, "I'll be having Ruby set up a bed in the room until you leave. It's better if she were to stop her current projects and keep an eye on you with your current condition. Do you find this..._acceptable_?" This was obviously not a question.

Tsukune just grunted from the shower. However, before the Exorcist could shut the door Tsukune called out, "Headmaster, you said you had a friend who did something like I did. What was his name?"

The Exorcist paused, sighed and with a show of struggling will said, "It was a She, and her name was Akasha."


End file.
